A+Soldier`s+Bride

A girl named Ngozi aged 16 and a boy called Obi aged 17 are in love with each other. Obi goes to school, and Ngozi has just passed the entrance exam for one of the Secondary Schools. Her father though, doesn’t want her to go to college because he thinks it’s a waste of money, since she will not be there to support her family in the future, but meet and marry a man and move away with him. Obi pays the school deposit, and Ngozi persuades her father to let her go to college.
 * Presentation of the story: **

After a short time at secondary school, a civil war breaks out in the country, and all institutions closes. The girl has to move back to her village. Her father, who has suddenly become in need of money, tries to persuade her to marry some of the locals, so that he will recieve money from the dowry. She refuses because she still loves Obi, but is later forced to marry a local trader because he has offered her father a large amount of money. The marriage did not work very well, because she was running away from the house every night, later to be hunted down by her father again, because he was afraid of the trader wanting to have his money back.

After some years where she did not become pregnant, the trader took a second wife, and the girl divorced so that she would not have to live with a man she didn’t love. After the war Obi returned, and continued his school. He later asked Ngozi if she wanted to marry him, even though some of his uncles and aunts questioned this decision, since the girl was known to be barren. Obi and Ngozi married, she went back to secondary school, and they later got a son which they called “Nwaifunaya”, a child of love.

__** Point of view: **__ This story is written in first person, which means that it is told through the person "I". This makes the story a bit more personal than it would be if it was told by third person narrator. The story is told through the eyes of Ngozi. She gives us her own opinions about how it is to live in a traditional muslim society, where the men decides over money and women and so on. Her mother did not have the right to decide over her own money. She wanted to help her daughter with money and support, but her husband refuses her to do so. If this was told in the eyes of her father, we would get a very different picture, since he is seen on as very traditional man, by us who read the text.

__** Theme/Message: **__ This is a typical story about two people in love, kept away from each other because of the circumstances. It is also typical with its topic about unequal treatment between girls and boys. Ngozis father tells her that he will not pay for her education, because he need the money to pay for Ngozis younger brother, when he is going to school. One of the themes in this story is about human rights, and that people should be able to chose what kind of education they would like to take. It is also about so-called "forbidden love", which in this case means that you should be able to choose who you want to marry, and who you want to love on your own, instead of that your parents are going to decide it for you.

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